“Peep-eye, Janie.”
Janie whipped her head around, a smile breaking on her face. She laughed.
Kelsey lifted the toddler out of the porta-crib. “You need a clean diaper ASAP, young lady.”
She quickly changed Janie into a dry diaper and clean clothes, then lifted her into her arms. “There you go, munchkin, all done.”
Janie moved her hands, almost like a referee signaling “safe,” and repeated the gesture again. All done.
A few years back, Kelsey had taken a workshop on baby signing for continuing ed hours. She recognized the sign. How would this baby, who had been abandoned and barely spoke, know the sign? It didn’t fit.
It was possible that it was a fluke and she didn’t mean to do it. She put Janie on the bed again and touched her arm. “Janie, more milk?”
As she spoke she made the signs with her hands, putting the fingers of both hands together for more and making a squeezing motion with one hand for milk.
Janie immediately brought her hands together. More.
Wow. Definitely not a fluke. Kelsey blew out a breath and held her arms out to the toddler. “Come on, we’ll go get you some milk and a snack.”
Even young babies learn rudimentary communication. She’d been so sad that Janie had been separated from the people who could communicate in her language, even though she knew it wouldn’t be long before she learned to compensate.
Janie rarely cried like a normal baby, and she didn’t talk. But she signed, something that had been proven to help babies communicate their needs. It was so interesting to Kelsey. What was more interesting was that it pointed to a mother who loved Janie enough to teach her.
A perplexing mystery.
“Hey, I figured your feet would be hurting. You hungry?” Gracie came in balancing a plate of cheese, crackers and grapes and two bottles of water. She had a sippy cup under her other arm. “Nolan told me the baby woke up.”
“So you’re through with your gig as the hostage negotiator?” Kelsey handed Janie a set of plastic car keys, one of the toys she carried in her big tapestry bag.
Gracie walked through the open door into the sitting room and dropped easily to the floor, crossing her legs underneath her. “This time I was playing the hostage. Unfortunately, the hothead team leader decided to go for the tactical solution too early and the ‘hostage’ and the ‘hostage taker’ were both killed.” She rolled her eyes. “Since I’m officially dead, I decided they could spend the afternoon alone.”
“Well, we’re glad to see you.” Kelsey spoke through the open door to Gracie then turned to the baby. “Want some milk?”
Janie lunged into Kelsey’s arms, making the sign for milk as Kelsey carried her into the sitting room. Kelsey looked at Gracie, raising an eyebrow. “Did you see that?”
“She made a sign. How in the world did you figure that out?” Gracie held the milk cup for Janie to grasp in her little hands.
“Complete accident.” Kelsey dropped to the floor, where the toys still remained from the morning’s play session. “It’s not extremely unusual for a baby to sign, but she’s so quiet.”
“Maybe Ethan will come back with information that can help us.” Gracie handed Janie a cracker as she crawled toward the plate. “I know this isn’t much lunch for a toddler. I’ll have the cook make something for her.”
“By ‘the cook,’ you mean Tyler?”
“Of course.” Gracie smiled. “I sure didn’t marry him for his good looks. It was the fluffy pancakes that did me in. That and the studly sense of honor the Clark men have.”
“Ethan definitely has it.” Kelsey made the sign for more to Janie, who repeated it back to her. More. “This case, the fact that he didn’t know about Charlie … he won’t admit it, but it’s killing him.”
Gracie’s smile faded. “I know it has to be. I’ve worked with a lot of cops and agents over the years. It’s a rare one that isn’t affected personally in some way, but what happened to Ethan is beyond anything I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m hoping that finding Charlie can give him some closure. It’s not going to be easy.”
“Nolan mentioned that you were doing an image search. Did you have any luck?” Gracie handed Janie another cracker and laughed as she crushed it, scattering crumbs all over the carpet.
Kelsey held her hand out to Janie, who put the crushed cracker in her hand. “Oh, thank you. So sweet.” To Gracie, she said, “I’ve run an image search on twenty-eight of the photographs. So far, I’ve found four exact matches. One on Facebook and three on adoption blogs. They posted the pictures as their dream of having children come true. It’s heartbreaking.”
“Are you sure the adoptions weren’t legal?”
“I’m not sure of anything at this point. The only one we know wasn’t legal was Ethan’s son, Charlie’s. Signs point to illegal adoption, though, which is another thing that the witness Ethan is hunting will be able to confirm or deny.”
“Did you run an image search on Charlie’s photo?”
Slowly, she nodded. “It was running when I heard Janie awake up here.”
“So it’s probably finished.” Gracie looked at the computer sitting on the sofa.
Kelsey looked, too. Jumping crickets were banging around in her stomach. “I should look?”
Gracie nodded. “It was a brilliant idea to match the photos.”
Kelsey rubbed her finger across the mouse pad and brought up the page. It beeped and the results popped up. Her eyes met Gracie’s wide blue ones.
Now she had to decide what she was going to tell Ethan when he got back.
SEVEN
Ethan tapped the front of his bullet-resistant vest and waited impatiently behind the cops who had met him at the small hotel on the outskirts of Sea Breeze. Detective Joe Sheehan had met him here at the hotel with a tactical team of men used to banging on doors—and going through them—without knowing what they would find on the other side.
He and Joe had talked to the manager on duty and found out which room had been rented to the credit card in question. Now, she just had to be there.
With a nod from Joe, the cop by the door knocked. When there was no answer, he waved the manager forward to use the master key on the lock. He swiped the key and, with a look to confirm that they were through with him, left in a hurry. The two cops in front opened the door and entered the room, shouting their identities as police officers.
Within a few moments they were motioning him in. “The room’s clear, sir. She’s not here.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” He went into the hotel room. The bed had been slept in. Used towels were on the floor and there were fast-food bags in the trash can. Viktoria Arsov had definitely been here.
But where had she gone?
He opened the drawer. There were a few items of clothing, but nothing to identify where she might be heading if she didn’t return. And if she came back to see cops crawling the property, he would bet she wouldn’t come back to this room.
There was a jacket hanging in the closet. He searched the pockets and found a movie ticket stub. Maybe she was spending her free time at the theater, staying out of sight. But the question in his mind was: Why had she stayed in the area after ditching the baby? Why had she taken the risk?
There was white dust on the floor of the closet. He picked up Arsov’s suitcase to move it out of the way and very nearly put his fist through the wall at what he saw. Someone had sawed an eighteen-inch-by-eighteen-inch square through the wall of the hotel room into the next room, just small enough to hide behind the suitcase.
Just large enough for a person to fit through.
If Arsov had seen them, she very easily could’ve escaped.
He stormed into the bathroom and picked up the trash can. Hair color: brunette. If the deputies outside thought they were looking for a blonde, like Arsov’s DMV photos reflected, she might’ve slipped right past them. He ran for the door of the hotel room, the deputies giving him strange looks.
&nbs
p; “Did anyone come out of the room next door? Room 224? Anyone come out of this room?” He pointed at the door, shouting at the cops outside.
Finally one stepped forward, an officer who had been posted in the parking lot. “Yes, sir. A young woman came out with her boyfriend about five minutes ago.”
“Where did they go?” Aware that his anger was showing, Ethan tried to dial it back but failed. “Anyone?”
“She left in her car.” A young guy, one of the hotel guests who had apparently come out to see the hoopla, answered. “I came out of the hotel room with her, but I’m not her boyfriend. She told me that her ex-husband was trying to have her arrested for stealing a car that she bought.”
The kid looked miserable. Ethan rubbed a hand across his mouth. “What else did she say?”
“That all she needed was a way to get away and I wouldn’t get in trouble.”
Ethan nodded, the anger at having lost the only lead to his son dwindling. It wasn’t this kid’s fault. “Okay, thanks. One of these detectives will get a statement from you.”
He waved Joe Sheehan over and walked out of the parking lot to where his car was parked on the street. He banged his hands on the steering wheel.
Their best lead was in the wind. And that left them with exactly nothing.
Ethan got permission to enter the grounds at Restoration Cove, the gates sliding open in front of him. When he pulled in the driveway, the first thing he saw was a blanket on the grass and Kelsey sitting cross-legged with the baby crawling around her. Kelsey’s hair was looped up in a ponytail.
She also had on different clothes than she’d been wearing this morning—jeans, a graphic T, a cardigan. Then he realized that Janie was dressed like a Baby Gap model, too.
He chuckled as he walked toward her. “Let me guess. Gracie sent their teenage help shopping for your clothes.”
“Are you saying that I don’t always dress this cool?”
“Not at all. It’s actually not that far off from how you normally dress.”
She laughed. “I know. I would totally wear this. Gracie sent her back to town for more practical baby clothes, though. This little sweater Janie has on? It has to be professionally cleaned.”
Ethan dropped to the blanket, lying back and crossing his hands behind his head as he looked at the crystal-blue sky. He didn’t want to bring up what happened at the hotel, even though he knew Kelsey would be curious. So he stalled. “I love fall in Florida. It gives you hope that the rest of the year isn’t going to be as miserable as the summer.”
Janie launched herself across the blanket and landed half on top of Ethan’s chest. She patted his face.
“What happened, Ethan?” Kelsey’s voice was quiet.
“She ran. Got out right under our noses.” He shrugged one shoulder, then rolled to face her, balancing his head on his hand, tickling Janie with the other one.
Janie flopped to her back, kicking her feet, grabbing Ethan’s hand with both of her smaller ones. She was so cute, her joy innocent and infectious. He wanted to hold her close and protect her from anything bad that might come her way.
“Is she okay to play like this? I know she’s not supposed to get too excited.”
“I think she’s fine.” Kelsey touched his shoulder. “I’m sorry about the witness. Is there anything we can do?”
“Pray that she gets sloppy and uses her credit card again.” He watched as Janie scooted closer to the edge of the blanket and touched the grass with her foot. She looked back to see if Kelsey was watching. “Viktoria Arsov is my only known connection to Charlie. I don’t know how to find him without her, Kels.”
“That’s not going to be a problem.” She went quiet for a couple seconds. “I know where he is.”
He felt the pain in his gut, like he’d been sucker-punched. “What?”
“Nolan and I did an image search. I wasn’t sure if it would work or if I should, but … they actually only live a couple of hours from here.”
“They …” His voice was shaky. He steadied it and continued. “Kelsey, I need to know.”
“I know. Let’s go inside and I’ll show you.” She winced as she put the weight on her feet and reached for the baby.
“I’ll get her. Even twenty extra pounds is too much for those feet.” He lifted Janie easily and settled her on his arm. She rubbed her cheek with her fingers.
“I think that might be her sign for blankie. She’s really very communicative. Now that I’ve figured out that she knows signs, I’m starting to pick up more and more.” Kelsey handed the tattered square of dingy pink to Janie, who immediately rubbed it against her cheek.
Ethan started for the house, took one look at the dinner preparation going on in the kitchen through the window and veered for the patio door off the living room. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest.
One way or another, the next few minutes would change his life.
Kelsey followed Ethan into the house, moving more slowly, her sore feet slowing her down. She and Nolan had talked about whether to even tell Ethan that she had found evidence of his son’s whereabouts. In Nolan’s black-and-white, binary world, he believed that telling Ethan would only make it harder on him.
It would, there was no question, because he wouldn’t be able to go to his son, not now. Not without endangering Charlie further. He would need to provide protection for him, though. This investigation would put Charlie at risk, something she was sure Ethan had already thought of.
Ethan had been grieving the loss of his wife and son for two years. Maybe it was cruel to give him the information when he couldn’t act on it, but in her opinion, it would be more cruel to keep the only information they had on Charlie from his biological father.
He held the door open for her, tension evident in the taut lines of his body. As tightly reined as she knew he held his emotions, she couldn’t imagine the crazy ride he’d been on the last few days.
In the library, Nolan still sat over the keyboard, a bevy of empty root beer bottles on a separate table beside him.
“Nolan.” Ethan knocked on the doorframe. “Kelsey said you found something.”
“Actually, Kelsey found it. I only gave her the software. It’s pretty cool. See, it works with photographs, analyzing about a thousand points of reference and then searching for—” He looked up at Ethan’s face, his voice trailing off. “Get to the point?”
“That would be good.”
Kelsey put her hand on Ethan’s back. He was nearly vibrating with tension. Janie squirmed in his arms.
He handed the baby to Kelsey. “Please, Nolan.”
Nolan’s fingers flew on the keys. “One second. Let me just save this and … there.”
The blog popped up. Called “And Then There Were Three,” it was cute, decorated on the sides like a scrap-book with multicolored 3s, ribbons and photos. Ethan sucked in a breath at the photograph of a two, almost three-year-old boy wearing a cowboy hat—a little boy who had Ethan’s unmistakable blue eyes.
Ethan leaned forward, making an unconscious sound.
Nolan stood and gave Ethan his seat. “Read it, dude. It’s the story of their life from before they adopted their—” His eyes shot to Kelsey. “I mean, your kid. I’m, um, just going to go get something from somewhere. Else. Somewhere else.”
He grabbed an armload of empty bottles and bolted from the room.
“You scare him, you know.”
“He needs to get out more.” Ethan didn’t look up. He was staring at the computer screen, but hadn’t moved it forward to read the entries.
“If you look at the side, you’ll see the archives. You can start at the beginning. That’s where she introduces herself and you’ll see the original picture I found.”
He moved the cursor over to the first entry. It hovered there for a long moment. Very deliberately, he clicked it. When it loaded he started reading.
Kelsey could see only his profile, but the muscles in his jaw worked as he read the story of the adoption. She’d
had unabashed tears streaming down her face earlier. Even Nolan had cleared his throat a time or two, reading it.
Ethan was silent, his only movement his finger on the keyboard.
She ached to reach out to him, but didn’t know how. Grieving for a child you believed gone from you forever, that was one thing. Finding that another family has had the joy of raising him—the same joy that was taken from you—there was no precedent for that.
She prayed silently for Ethan, that he could come to grips, somehow, with everything that had happened. He needed peace in the midst of the storm. If he didn’t have it, he might not survive. And Kelsey knew that the Lord was the only source of that peace.
Janie fussed in her arms, and Kelsey eased toward the door.
“You don’t have to go.” He didn’t look up from the computer, but his words stopped her.
Were they a plea for her to stay? The baby squirmed again, pushing away from her. Nolan appeared in the door, holding out his arms for Janie. She didn’t know what to do. Up to this point, Janie had been pretty particular about who she would go to.
Nolan reached a little closer, and Janie leaned forward to grab a handful of his hair. He shot a grin at Kelsey and looped an arm around Janie’s waist, hitching her high on his forearm. “Here we go. No problem, Uncle Nolan’s got you.”
She watched the computer whiz leave with the baby, some kind of protective mother instinct whispering that Janie would be safe with Nolan.
Ethan’s shoulders were straight. He still hadn’t moved, but as she returned to stand beside him, he took a shuddering breath. “She tried to get pregnant for years. Seven miscarriages. They chose Charlie because he was older, because the adoption agency told them he could be adopted right away. He was the answer to their prayers. Literally.”
He turned to her, the gut-wrenching anguish he felt evident on his face. “I hadn’t even thought about them. I’m so selfish that other than praying that Charlie was safe and happy, the people who adopted him never entered my mind. This is going to tear them apart at the seams. Who would know that better than I would?”
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